thnx for the welcome and the advice
i've had a look through that list and the zalmans seems a bit expensive for their power, about the same as the seasonic, which are very tempting because of the active PFC, fortrons/sparkle seem to be a best buy solution. unfortunately i didn't see a review of the FSP350 60PLN models by sparkle, i'd really like to see how the APFC on them changes the efficiency, i don't suppose u have a un published review anywhere do u?

If the 12 drives consume 1.5A each on average on the 12V at spin up, for a few seconds they would hit 18A on the 12V. I don't know what'd happen if I ran as many 7200.7s on my Nexus 300 -- 12 drives at 2.8A is 33.6A, vs. the PSU's max of 18A -- maybe a braver soul can try it out. I would prefer having as much current on the rail as the drives during spin up.

Doing a data recovery job off a failed RAID5 array right now, running the following off a HEC-300AR-T PSU:

AMD Athlon 800 (Slot A)
Shuttle AI-61 (AMD751)
384MB SDRAM
WD800JB (boot drive)
IBM 100GB 7200rpm (data drive)
3x Hitachi 10k SCSI 73GB (the failed RAID) connected to Adaptec 29160LP
Samsung SP1614N + WD800JD connected to Promise S150 TX2 for storing recovered data
LG DVD-ROM
ATI RageXL
3COM 905 NIC
SBLive
ESS modem, don't remember exact type

Rock stable, doesn't give any problems

I acquired a "Plug-In Mains Power & Energy monitor" today from maplin's 1/2 price sale.

My fortron 300w 120mm fanned (fsp300-60pn(pf)A) psu (modded with evercool 120mm @ 5v) runs the following:
Amd Athlon64 3200+ Winchester socket 939 (currently at 2200mhz, 10x220)
1gig (2x512mb pc3200 samsung original tccc chips)
MSI K8N Neo2 platinum (nforce 3 socket 939)
ATI Radeon 9700np with vga silencer 3
Hauppauge wintv card
Hercules fortissimo II sound card
NEC 3500 dvd writer
Liteon 52x cd writer
Maxtor diamondmax plus 8 40gig
Samsung Spinpoint80 160gig JVC motor
1x evercool 120mm @ 5v intake
1x papst 92mm 3412NL @ 7v exhaust
Zalman 7000 ALCU @ lowest setting

Running prime95 right now the reading is 144watts AC.

Running a 3dmark2003 with overclocked r9700 gfx to 405/324 maxes the reading out to 180watts AC.

Idling in windows with cool&quiet ON (idles at 1100mhz, 5x220) gives the reading of 103watts AC.

Idling in windows with cool&quiet OFF - changing to "always on" in power options in windows (idles at 2200mhz, 10x220) gives the reading of 113watts AC.


So with say 70% efficiency of the fsp300, I'd say my pc uses no more than ~130watts DC.

I am however possibly looking to buy a new FSP400 blue storm psu (no idea why really, if my system uses 130watts DC), but I'll be able to report to SPCR readers how good loud/quiet it is.

Is there any difference in the efficiency, robustness or general quality of the power supplies running off of 120 vs 240 volts AC? Would it be better to run the PSU at 240 or 120. I see many of the posts here are from people in Europe and the UK. Houses in NA are mainly 120 volt but we can wire 240 outlets if we like.

Just curious what the performance differences are for PSU's running 120 vs 240 volts since most are switchable.

morkys -- In general, most PSUs tend to run slightly more efficiently with 240VAC input. But I doubt the ~2% gain with typical 100W (or less) long term DC consumption of a PC is worth pursuing.

If you want to reduce your own electricity consumption or be more "green", investing in high efficiency light bulbs or a new furnace gives you much more bang for the buck, with huge differences in both energy consumption and running costs.

Example: I was running incandescent & talogen lights in the lab, especially where I do the photography. Very bright to minimize flash usage. Swapped about a dozen bullbs recently to 16W & 23W ones in place of 60~75W & 100W bulbs -- and 2 2~300W halogens. I found some 23W "daylight" balance bulbs that are really quite good, slightly bluer than I would like but much much better then normal flourescent or incandescent "natural light" bulbs. Cost was ~$120.

End result: The spaces are brighter, and my energy consumption in lights for those rooms has dropped from ~1500W to less than 250W. I am sure I will see a change in my next electrc bill.

Thanx. I'm aware of the energy efficiency options out there.

Interesting that they are more efficient. I really meant to ask whether the 240 volt operation of PSU's makes them put out more current and more wattage vs 120 volt operation.

I realize that you have noticed that I have been chasing the most efficient Enermax PSU, but this time I was really asking whether or not the SPU's could deliver more DC current, more watts when fed 240 volts vs 120 volts. I suspect that it may be why some people say they need more than a 300 or 350 watt PSU when many people are running very low power units. I just thought perhaps the higher voltage operation that Europe and UK PC users were experiencing are resulting in better overall current per rail and higher overall wattage. Maybe, maybe not? I was just curious about that.

thanx

My friend claims he runs this com on his sparkle 300W

A64 3200+ S939 oc to 2.5Ghz
DFI Lanparty Nforce 4 SLI-DR
6800 Ultra OCed (and he wants to SLI this one)
XP-120 with Vantec Tornado
4 fans
2 Raptors 74Gb on RAID
1 Seagate 200GB
1 16x DVD-ROM
1 16X DVD-RW


And he said his com is totally stable.

Is this possible?

Yes.

Yup and you could probably toss in a few more hard drives as well as a small cook top and still have power leftover.

Use the search function, there is many a thread about how much power items consume in your computer.

chucuSCAD

But I think the FSP will start to sweat with two 6800U.
It will be close to 220W DC! Include derating and MTBF
and you have probably shortened it's lifetime considerable.

This is an old thread but I'll post all the same for laughs...

2x Athlon XP-m 35w @ 2134mhz each, 1.6v (133x16)
1.5GB 266mhz ECC ram
2x 10k SCSI drives (1x each 9.1GB and 18GB)
1x 80GB IDE drive
1x Laptop CDrom
2x Panaflos @ 12v
LSI 64bit 66mhz SCSI3 controller card
Soundblaster Live! card.
Zalman 300B PSU

Antec TruePower 330W


Intel P4 2.4GHz (Northwood)
SiS645-based motherboard
2x512MB PC-3200 Kingston HyperX
2x80GB Seagate Barracuda IV
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (128MB)
M-Audio Revolution 7.1
Netgear 108MBps Wireless PCI adapter
Plextor PX-708A (DVD+/-RW)
Samsung DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive
Floppy drive


Everything's running fine for now. I wonder if the same PSU will withstand an upgrade to an A64-based system (i.e. motherboard & CPU upgrade).

Enhance 250W PSU in the KlossPC

Intel P4 2.8GHz (sometimes OC to 2.98GHz)
2*512Mb DDR400 ram
Samsung Spinpoint P120 200Gb SATA
Maxtor Diamondmax9 160Gb SATA
NEC 2510 DVDRW
Leadtek 6600GT PCI-E

The fan in the PSU is swapped for a tiny 40mm ADDA fan which produces almost no air flow. Therefore, my PSU is easily the hottest thing in my setup, even including the presc(h)ott.

Enermax Noisetaker 320W

P4 3Ghz HT
2x512 ddr400 ram
Maxtor 120gig ide
Seagate 160gig ide <--- recent subtraction
WD 3200gig sata <--- recent addition
16x Liteon DVD rom
40x Liteon CDRW
Sappire 9600XT
2x92mm Nexus fan
80mm Nexus fan

This system has been running smoothly for 9 months now. I encode and watch dvd's. Play games such as GTA and Far Cry. And the usual internet browsing. I usually leave my system on for long periods of time beacause it sits silently in my room.

Okay, I used to use a 350w PSU that came with my BQE, but the PSU died on me (okay i admit it, I killed it), so now I'm using a Antec True Power 330.

SLK3700BQE (With the Org Fan)
Athlon 64 3200 (w/ Zalman 7000b)
Asus A8V
1GB Corsair Value
ATI AIW 9600XT (w/ Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer)
WD800JB
Generic (actually I just forgot the company) DVD-ROM
Nec DL +/- DVD Burner
+56K Modem
+Firewire PCI Card

While I was waiting for my Antec SP500 to be delivered, I used a spare Enhance 200w psu to run the following components:

Athlon 64 3200 (w/ stock heatsink) oc'd to 2.4ghz
MSI K8N NEO2
1GB Corsair Value
BFG 6800GT OC
WD800JB
1x120mm fan
NEC DVD+/-R Burner


All was stable, with no problems with prime95 (16 hours), gaming, or regular office/web work.

My Seasonic Super Tornado 300 can do this with rock stable voltages:

All passively watercooled:
Prescott 4.0GHz (3.2GHz) w/ ASUS Motherboard
nVidia Geforce 6800GT OC'ed
4 x 512 Crucial Ballistix PC4000 Memory OC'ed
CSP-MAG pump
Six 2.5" 80GB Notebook Drives
Two external SATA drives
MAudio Sound Card (I do recording)

It was quiet! But Seasonic wsa too loud, so now I am running it on my Phantom 350. I love Antec Phantom it is wonderfully dead silent...

However, my generic 520W PSU couldn't handle this rig at all, and it had more amps on every rail as compared to my Seasonic. Conclusion: Watt ratings are completely relative.

Now that's a long lasting thread !
Joining in too.

files = time =money
+ me being paranoiac
= I upgraded my Antec SmartPower 300W PSU to a Enermax Noisetaker 370W
Looks like I was wrong ...

Asus A7V600-X
Athlon 2000+
Zalman 6000 CNPS Cu with Zalman 92mm fan
Matrox G400
2 x 512Mo DDR
1 x 200Go Seagate 7200
2 X 80Go IBM 180GXP
1 x LiteOn 42x CD-RW
3Com 100Mo Ethernet
Hauppauge Tuner
Promise Ultra 133TX2
Chieftec Mesh series extended medium tower
Enermax Noisetaker 370W PSU
2 x 92mm fans for HDs (variable Enermax and Chieftec)
1 x 120mm exhaust NoiseBlocker S2
1 x PCI slot blower
1 x Cooler master stacker module with 120mm intake fan
Zalman multi-connector and fan-mates for all fans but Staker

Stacker is dead silent anyway : 5 cm away ... can't hear it !

you could state this a lot more plainly: Some PSU output ratings are simply lies.

Who buys a generic 520W PSU anyway? You were asking for it.

(nothing oc'ed and looking around to buy a new psu other then that its rather stable)

Might aswell post mine:


• 3x used ram slots (2x 256mb-ddr 1x 512mb-ddr)
• MSI K8t Neofis2r
• AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (socket 754)
• 17'' lcd samsung screen & 5.1 Encore boxes
• Integrated RealTek Sound
• Cable internet card
• Geforce 6800 ULTRA 256MB
• Ssata 80gb
• AeroCool Jetmaster Case -
- 1x12cm 4B LED Fan in the front panel
- Square side panel
- 8cm 4Blue LED Fan+T3 Fan Grill

It would be running on a Tagan 330W Power Supplie
specs:

TG330-U1

• Intel ATX12V Version 1.3

• TSCT: Tagan Silence Control Technology (22-28dBA)

• up to 4 integrated Serial ATA power connectors for SATA hard disk

• 12V / 18A up to 28A rail for stable powering of peripheral devices

Seasonic Super Tornado 300 Power Supply (Rev. A3)
In Antec P180 Case (black top panel and trim make for +5% efficiency...)

2x Samsung P120 (SP2004C) SATA2 HDDs (Loudest component/s)
Abit IC7-G Max II Advance Motherboard (w/NB32-J)
Intel P4 3.0C CPU (two words - Scythe Ninja)
Corsair XMS Twin-X 1024C2 (2x 512MB)
MSI NX6600GT-VTD128SP AGP Video Card (w/VF700-Cu @ 1200RPM)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music
NEC 3540A 16x Dual Format/Layer DVD Burner
Lite-On DVD-ROM (doubles as air circulating turbine)
Cooler Master Aerogate III Fan Controller / Temp. Monitor
120mm Nexus Fans in Top and Back (Temp. Controlled, idle @ 450RPM)
120mm Aerocool Turbine 1000 Fan in Lower Chamber (500RPM)

This power supply is along with the super silencer counterpart THE model of efficiency and silence amongst PC power supplies. The fan in my Super Tornado has never once ramped up, and believe me I would know if it had; the rest of my system is effectively silent @ idle. Somewhat unfortunately, I may soon replace it with a NeoHE 430 only for the modular cable management (huge plus in the P180, no extra cables to stuff in the lower chamber) and compatibility with newer hardware. If someone is looking for an exceptional ATXv1.3 power supply for their silent system, let me know.

-DG-

silence:

You don't mention case, but from your description of case locations, I presume a P180? Actually, that caught my attn a lot less than:

In another lifetime, I spent many years at WPI. I think it's the first time I've seen anyone in these forums identify it as their location.

Sorry for the thread necro, but I saw the "how much stuff will 300w run" and I had to join in.

FSP 300w (the cheap one with a yate loon d80sh-12 swapped out for a d80sm-12)
Pc chips m825
512 Samsung DDR 400 (one stick)
Amd Athlon t-bird 1.3
Pioneer DVD drive
WD800 80gb 2mb drive
2 arctic cooling arctic fan
1 ultra blue ccfl
HIS 9250

Bump for old threads :p

Going to start building a new one with Seasonic 330W soon, will post again when done.

Meanwhile I can say that I fix computers for a large company which used to have like 5000 of one particular model computer. That model had a PSU rated at 95W running 1GHz pentium with mobo, 2 mem-sticks, onboard graphics, PCI LAN card, floppy, CD-rom and HD. The fact that those models broke down on a regular basis was mostly because of crappy capacitors on the mobo. After they replaced those caps with better quality ones on the spare mobos, it all got better.

FSP Zen 300w

- A64 3000 @ 2200 MHz
- Abit KN8 SLI heatipie cooled
- GeForce 6800 GS 500/500 + Zalman VF700 Cu
- 80 GB Samsung
- 80 GB Maxtor
- 92 mm CPU cooler
- 80 mm case fan
- Power Color Theater 550 Pro TV-tuner

Hey, I'll jump in the fun.

Seasonic SS300SFD 80 plus
AMD Sempron 2600+ E6 @1.05V
Soltek SL-K8AN2E-GR
512MB DDR400 PC3200 RAM
BFG FX5200
Sound Blaster Live Platinum
ATI TV Wonder Pro
Samsung SP0812C
Samsung TS-H552U
Yate Loon D12SL-12
Panaflo 92mm M1

I was using an old 300W PSU from an AMD Duron 950Mhz PC that I put together many years ago before I got the Seasonic. Frankly, 300W is more than enough for me. I figure my system pulls somewhere around 60-70W max.

See the sig. Processor is at 2.75Ghz and is dual core, the RAM is at 250mhz CAS 2.5-3-2-7 and the vid card is overclocked to XT speeds. Oh, and there are 4 120mm Nexus fans running at sub 1000rpm.

edit: Recently added a Maxtor Diamondmax 10 250GB PATA to the mix without so much as a hiccup.

Soon, I'll be adding a PCI-E x1 eSATA card and a WD 500GB drive in an eSATA enclosure. Will update then.

Well, I'll throw in my results aswell... Was a bit nervous after ordering a inno3d 7800GS if my system could handle it. No worries!

- Pentium 4 2.8C (SLK-900 on it)
- 4*256Mb PC3200 DDR Ram (Twinmos)
- Samsung P80 160Gb SATA (Can't remember exact model...)
- Soundblaster Audigy2
- 2*Panaflo 80mm (Controlled by one Zalman fanmate)
- Panaflo 92mm (Controlled by a Z. fanmate)
- inno3D 7800GS 256Mb AGP
- Nexus NX-3000 300W PSU

My rig is quiet enough when doing normal stuff like web/email since the 7800GS fan is controlled by Rivatuners profiles. Once 3D gaming occurs it ramps up in speed. The loudest thing (apart from gaming scenario) is the samsung.